Artist35: Fuyuko Matsui

I wasn't sure what to think when I first saw Fuyuko Matsui's art. A piece in the Japan Times allowed Matsui to explain the different layers in her art. She says, "Japanese culture has become too clean. Our five senses are too blunt. I think Japan needs some fear to stimulate the sense of pain". She also discusses the more positive implications of her work, as finding passion through both hope and pain allow one to find "a renewed sense of being alive". She also tries to communicate the female perspective in a more male-centered Japan. She finds that many of the traditional teachings and practices aren't equally relevant to women, hence the focus on femininity in her art. To this end, she works in a more traditional style, retrospectively applying past, traditional Japanese art to modern life and, specifically, Japanese women.

Matsui provides an interesting modern look at social and gender conflict in art. A common theme in Western art in the 20th and 21st centuries, this is a less common, but growing, force in many Eastern societies.